Sophomore VIA Students Rally for AIDS in Africa

By: Mary Cate Kelleher
Posted In: News

More than 100 students and faculty members gathered in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall on Monday night to hear an AIDS presentation given by sophomore VIA students at Salve Regina University to raise money for an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

Justine Axelsson and Lila deBruyne, both sophomore VIA students, will spend a month in Kenya this summer working at the By Grace Orphanage, which offers free education, food, shelter and medical care for orphans whose parents have died of AIDS.

Paul Zasada began the presentation by asking attendees to think about how far the depths of society reach. The goal was to increase awareness and to take responsibility for a problem that all are a part of.

“The paradox,” said Zasada, “is that we are simultaneously a part of the problem and part of the solution.”

The presentation continued with a showing of the documentary “Left Behind,” which was filmed and narrated by Christof Putzel, who volunteered at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, when he was in college. The purpose of the film was to give faces to the numbers.

The documentary contained interviews with HIV-positive orphans, many of whom are also homeless. It emphasized the popularity of sniffing glue to stop the hunger pains and spent a great deal of time discussing how uneducated they are about their disease and how to practice safe sex.

The class followed the documentary with a Power Point presentation to inform the audience of the history of AIDS and its transmission. There were graphs and statistics to drive the point home that AIDS is an epidemic that needs to be stopped.

According to their research 44.3 million people worldwide have AIDS,

and 33.1 million of those are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Samantha Nelson, a junior at Salve who attended the lecture for her psychology class, thinks it’s very important that this issue is discussed. Nelson’s mother spent two weeks in Malawi last November with Women’s Campaign International.

The focus was on AIDS, and her mother was present as all the women in

Parliament got tested for the disease.

“From having her experience that,” Nelson said, “it’s a really big deal. It’s a very big national thing. People in the government have it too.”

Axelsson ended the presentation with pictures of By Grace and some of the children who live there. The orphanage is surrounded by slum dwellings. Many of the children have never taken a bath because of the water shortage. They just recently received pens, books, clothes and other supplies.

The children have one outfit each and second-hand school uniforms. Because they have no parents, and the volunteers come and go on a regular basis, the younger babies are assigned to older children who feed and care for them.

These “older children” are often under 5 years old.

The VIA students encourage everyone to help by raising awareness and by educating ourselves and others. The benefit raised over $500 that will go towards rebuilding and fixing up the orphanage and some of the surrounding area.